Background: There is grave concern with the way the Franklin County Dog Shelter and Adoption Center of Ohio handles its dog evaluations, euthanasia time frames, and the potential adopter applications not including landlord permission.

UPDATE 9/7: Editing to show that we will be sending this to Don Winstel the new Director of Franklin County Dog Shelter & Adoption Center.

What We Also Know:

1. Their antiquated use of the food-guarding test has been proven defective and unreliable and needs abolished.
2. The system used to help dogs that are shy, elderly or have health issues are not followed to the fullest extent.
3. The non use of landlord agreements “okaying” adoptions has caused too many returns thereby forcing the labeling “returned” in files. This includes the need for quality screening of potential adopters to introduce "Before Bringing Adopted Dog Home" and "30 Days After Adoption" tips.
4. Labeling a dog “pit-bull” without the use of DNA testing causes undo harm to too many dogs in the shelter as their teaching the general public on the breed is lacking at best. Because DNA testing is expensive and the only way to determine actual breed of a dog, only those in doubt would require a mixed-breed label unlike the more obvious ones.
5. Wait times for dog assessments are too long. There is a need to reduce wait times for dog assessments to allow more time for rescues and adoptions to occur.
6. There have been too many "walk by cage" only assessments and as such, assessments should always be hands-on.
7. There is no using of the "Fostering a Dog" program -- there is a great need to reinstate it.
8. When hands-on assessments are done, there is no use of feline introductions to determine if dog is tolerant. It doubles the odds of saving feline lives as well and needs brought into the program.
9. The general public has been known to work with rescues on dogs that are deemed "Rescue Only" but this shelter doesn't use this tool to help save lives. Posting an album of "Rescue-Only Dogs" in the shelter lobby as to allow general public the ability to enquire should they be interested is advised.
10. Update volunteer program to include monthly follow-ups.

It has been calculated from January of 2015 to March of 2016 that the Franklin County Dog Shelter and Adoption Center is killing an average of 171 dogs a month due to the above issues.

No-kill is a highly effective and sustainable model that has been proven to work for the many top shelters throughout the United States and has shown they save as many as 98% of the lives in their shelters every month. It is understood the exception includes the hopelessly ill or injured or those deemed vicious with poor prognosis for rehabilitation.

We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens who urge our leaders to act now to:

1. Implement modern sheltering methods and address above issues and
2. Specifically use the “No-Kill Equation” at Franklin County Dog Shelter and Adoption Agency.

Petition To Be Sent To: Franklin County Board of Commissioners - Ohio

1. Board President John O' Grady
2. Commissioner Paula Brooks
3. Commissioner Marilyn Brown
4. Policy Director Lauren Rummel
5. Policy Director Michael Daniels
6. County Administrator Kenneth N. Wilson
7. Deputy County Administrator Erik J. Janas
8. Deputy County Administrator Kris Long, esq.
9. Shelter Director Don Winstel

*To show everyone how No-Kill is more than possible, please visit: http://www.austinpetsalive.org

**Picture credit: Chihuahua mixed-breed (full-grown): Diamond in the RRRuff ("Sparkle"), agility dog in training; owned by Arlene Watson Date14 September 2004 (original upload date) Source: Elf at English Wikipedia